The invention relates to a device for realising in a recording layer of a record carrier a longitudinal path of substantially parallel tracks which have a track direction transverse to the longitudinal direction of the path, the device comprising an optical system for focusing a radiation beam at the recording layer, which radiation beam causes a scanning spot to develop on the layer scanning unit means for causing the scanning spot to be displaced with a specific repetition rate over the layer along a scanning path that has a specific scanning direction, and a driver unit for causing the record carrier to be displaced relative to the scanning unit with a certain velocity in a direction transverse to the scanning direction. Such a device is known from U.S. Pat. No. 4,901,297.
In the scanning device disclosed in that patent, a recording surface corresponding to the scanning surface of a magnetooptical tape-like record carrier is scanned by a scanning spot in a direction transverse to the longitudinal direction of the tape-like record carrier. To achieve this scanning, a laser beam is focused at the record carrier via facets of a rotating polygon mirror. The tape is moved in the longitudinal direction, so that the recording surface is scanned in parallel relatively short scanning paths.
The tape-like record carrier comprises a prerecorded pattern used as a reference for controlling the position of the scanning spot during the scanning operation. The necessity of the use of a record carrier comprising a prerecorded reference pattern renders the manufacture of a tape-like record carrier complicated.